NOAA’s National Hurricane Center — a division of the National Weather Service — has a new model to help produce hurricane forecasts this season. The Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System …
NOAA launches new hurricane forecast model as Atlantic season starts strong Read More >
Uncrewed systems and other tools are gathering data at different levels of the ocean and the atmosphere that are key to understanding how storms form, build, and intensify. Together with NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft carrying sensors, this data paints a clearer picture for scientists of the forces that drive hurricanes. Predicting these changes in hurricanes enables communities to better prepare, which can protect lives and property and strengthen local economies.
We sat down with Sundararaman “Gopal” Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D., the senior meteorologist and leader of the modeling team that developed NOAA’s newest hurricane forecast model – the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System – that will go into full operation at NOAA’s National Weather Service in late June.
For the last seven years, NOAA has supported more than 70 U.S. communities in projects to help citizens map the hottest neighborhoods of their community. Earlier this year, NOAA branched into the wider world to support heat island mapping campaigns overseas.
The goal of the study is to improve the accuracy of weather and river flow forecasts in watersheds critical to the southwestern U.S. water supply.
Operational models are the backbone of weather and climate prediction, allowing experts to make informed predictions about the weather a few days from now — or the climate several decades into the future.
A new research paper from NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society finds that dust storms – previously assumed to be rather rare and isolated to particular regions – are contributing to a larger number of U.S. traffic fatalities than are recorded. This research also proposes modifications to the current reporting classifications to more accurately capture dust storm impact.
Ajani Bakari interviews Dr. James Marshall Shepherd, as part of a NOAA Research Black History Month profile. In it, Dr. Shepherd discusses his passions as a scientist, his challenges as an African American meteorologist, thoughts on mentorship, and provides his perspective on the importance of NOAA’s role to society. Dr. Marshall Shepherd is an American meteorologist, professor at the University of Georgia's Department of Geography, director of the university's atmospheric sciences program, and 2013 president of the American Meteorological (AMS). Dr. Shepherd has worked with NOAA in various advisory roles, including as a member of NOAA’s Science Advisory Board. He is also host of the Weather Geeks podcast.
This winter has brought multiple rounds of devastating severe weather to the southeastern U.S., with more than 200 reported tornadoes and 14 fatalities. To better understand the deadly storms in this region, scientists will conduct research as they travel through seven states in the second year of one of the largest and most comprehensive severe storm field projects to date.
Researchers with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, and partners set sail from Bridgetown, Barbados aboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown on November 1st, 2022. Over the next 40 days, the crew and scientists recovered and redeployed key moorings in the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA), deployed an additional mooring, and serviced two equatorial PIRATA buoys in support of the PIRATA Northeast Extension project and broader PIRATA objectives. They also conducted a number of research projects on the ocean and atmosphere that advance our understanding of carbon absorption in the ocean and atmospheric pollution.
